• UNHRC advocates international probe into Syria

    Jun 01

    The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Syria, during an emergency session on Friday.

    Condemning the violence and atrocities committed, the US and Arab led resolution specified that there should be an "international, transparent, independent and prompt investigation".

    Forty-one member states voted in favour of the resolution, including India, whilst Uganda and Ecuador abstained, and three member states voted against it - Russia, China and Cuba. The Phillipines was absent during the vote.

    Addressing the UNHRC, the representative of the UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay, said:

    "I reiterate my call to the government of Syria to grant the Commission of Inquiry, full and un-impeded access to the country, to carry out investigations into all human rights violations including the Houla event."

    "These acts may amount to crimes against humanity and other international crimes, and may be indicative of a pattern of widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations that have been perpetrated with impunity,"

    "I reiterate that those who order, assist or fail to stop attacks on civilians, are individually criminally liable for their actions."

    "Other states have a duty to do all they can to prevent and prosecute perpetrators of international crimes."

    "Once again I urge the Security Council to consider referring the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court."

  • Mubarak sentenced to life as protests erupt over son’s acquittal
    Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak, along with his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, have been handed lifetime prison sentences for their complicity in the killing of protesters in 2011’s uprising.

    Judge Ahmed Rifaat referred to Mubarak’s rule as “30 years of darkness”, stating that both Mubarak and Adly were complicit in a crackdown on protesters in the 18 days of demonstrations in Cairo and other major cities nationwide.
  • Egyptian emergency law expires
    Egypt’s decades-long state of emergency expired on Thursday, marking the first time in more than 30 years that the law has not been renewed.
  • China detains hundreds as another self-immolation takes place

    Chinese authorities have detained hundreds of people in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, as a young woman died setting herself alight protesting Chinese rule.

    The crackdown follows two men self immolating in the capital earlier this week, marking the first time such an act of protest has occurred in the city.

  • Suu Kyi urges caution over Burma reforms
    Burmese democracy leader  Aung San Suu Kyi has called for “healthy scepticism” over Burma’s recent drastic reforms, in her first major speech outside of the country in more than two decades.

    Speaking at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok, she called on investors to "think deeply" saying,
  • New killings confirmed in Syria

    UN observers have confirmed the discovery of 13 bodies near the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.

    The men were found with their hands behind their back and some had gunshot wounds in their heads.

    The head of the UN observers, Major General Robert Mood, said he was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the ‘appalling and inexcusable act’.

  • Former minister sentenced for life for Rwandan genocide

    The former Rwandan minister, Callixte Nzabonimana, was sentenced to life in prison by the International Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda  (ICTR) on Thursday, for his part in the 1994 genocide.

  • US urges Russia and China to act on Syria

    Exerting pressure of Moscow and Beijing, the US Secretary of State, Hiliary Clinton warned of the "terrible" danger of civil war.

    Condemning reports of a Russian arms shipment as "reprehensible", Clinton said,

  • UK creates team to investigate mass rape as weapon of war

    The UK is to set up a rapid action team, aimed at collecting evidence of mass rape in conflict zones when it is used as a weapon of war, reports The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.

    See here for full article.

  • Houla deaths were 'summary executions' says UN official

    The spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, Rupert Colville, said that a "substantial part" of the killings in Houla, Syria, were "summary executions" on Tuesday.

    Colville said,

    "At this point, it looks like entire families were shot in their houses."

  • Criticism as Mugabe appointed UN “leader for tourism”
    The UN’s World Tourism Organisation has caused uproar at its move to honour controversial Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a “leader for tourism”, reported the Guardian.
  • Charles Taylor jailed for 50 years

    For the first time since the Nuremberg trials, a former head of state has been convicted by an international war crimes tribunal, as Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment by judges at The Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague.

  • Syria to face UN questioning over the Houla massacre

    The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on the situation in Syria this Friday announced UN officials.

  • Syrian diplomats expelled in international response to Houla massacre
    Syrian diplomats have been expelled from embassies across the world in protest at the massacre of Houla, as international pressure on President Assad’s regime intensifies.
  • Tibetan immolations spread to capital for first time
    Twin self-immolations occurred in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa over the weekend, the first time in the city, as Tibetan unrest under Chinese rule continues to grow.
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